Return of the Ancient Guardians
by deaglechamp
Summary: a fic written partly by me and partly by my co-author about the ancient guadians seeking to put the lit lighthouses back into resting, and destroy those responsible for lighting the lighthouses.
1. awakening

Awakening  
  
The world of wayward was ours to protect from harm. We were entrusted with all the power of the gods, it seems, as we were locked away in the four lighthouses, deep within the beacons' recesses. I am the protector, the savior of the mars power. As my friends were similarly the ones to save their element's power, and put to sleep, the lighthouse beacons waned. The powers dimmed out of existence, except for the powers locked within us four, the stars which would relight the beacons, and the Psyenergy stones at Air's rock, Magma rock, Aqua rock, and Gaia rock. The elders thought it best to eliminate the powers of alchemy and protect their descendants form its wrath. They were our leaders, war heroes, and betters. They sealed us away for the good of our world. We knew this, and were told that we would awaken to a different world than the one we knew. Unknown to us, we would awaken and would have to fight a band of rebels, who were trying to break the seal on alchemy. We would bring the lighthouses back to resting, and ensure the survival of wayward. From then on we would be the guiding forces of wayward. Even with all that we were told, we were not prepared for what kind of a change we were really in for.  
  
I, Dan, the guardian of mars' flames, was awakened among sleet and snow, deep within my lighthouse's beacon of fire, mars. My black and red Pyro- Tunic, which usually smelled tinged, was oddly wrinkled and seemed dry rotted. The hood had deteriorated so my face was visible, and the shoulders were apparently in just as bad a condition, so the decorative style was all but gone and all that remained was the basic protection of the suit. The belt was in working order, and I was appreciative of that, but was disturbed to see that the legs had a small hole in them from a circular object. This object was nowhere to be found, and I assumed that it was the Mars Star. My sword, appearing at my side when summoned, came then to me as I called out to it, and ignited as soon as I summoned a lone spark around it. I assumed I had been sleeping for a long time, but how could this have happened so quickly? How long have I slept? Where was this band of rebels? Were they on the summit, or maybe at another lighthouse, perhaps?  
  
I was stunned by the sudden chills of my surroundings, and surprised that they even existed in such a place as I was then, and rushed to the door leading outside. I used my summoned sword to slice it out of my way, since it was frozen shut. I walked outside to see what had become of my once warm continent. I scoured the horizon for any clues of life and could not see any through the wall of driving snow all around me. After taking a glace around, I sheathed my sword. There was no enemies to be found in this area. I summoned a spell of flare wall to protect me from the cold, and used searing beam to blast a path in the shoulder-high snow. I trudged trough the quickly re-piling drifts to get to the one place I hoped still existed this far north: Prox. I activated my hover jade and used explosion to blast myself over the beautiful white and cloudy terrain.  
  
As I flew towards where Prox was last estimated to be in the year of the sealing, I couldn't help wondering what could have happened to all the other cities around wayward. My worries were set aside; however, as I drew closer to Prox and could barely see the outline of buildings through the perpetual whiteout before me.  
  
I entered Prox to find not the city I had once grown up in, but a wholly different place entirely. The rivers were frozen, the faces pale and frostbitten, and the buildings in disrepair due to a lack of change in weather over however long it was that I had been gone. I gaped in awe at the suffering of my people. Confused and hurt, I didn't know if I could talk to the people of the village. Their pain and craving for any heat at all almost drove me to insanity: what had happened? How had these people ended up so ravaged? I continued to explore, noting some changes to the town, but something was biting at my intuition. Couldn't quite grasp it, but decided to visit the local hotel to see if I could get some information about the status of wayward.  
  
The sick feeling clawing at the back of my mind would not go away, so I asked a woman what had happened to the once tranquil and comfortable village. She happened to be a sickly, dying female adult by the name of Karst. After a struggle, sat up and said: "It was Felix! He and his gutsy friends did this to us! Right, Agatio?" "Yes", said Agatio, who was also dying, "Felix has done this. Avenge us, mighty warrior, I Implore you!" "I can assure you I will." "Fear not, friends. They will not get away with this deed."  
  
As I left the hotel, the thought finally struck me: this wasn't the townsfolk he knew and his worries about wayward arose again. "What has happened to my friends?" I asked myself, and went off towards the coast. "The coast of the northern reaches has changed, and I do not remember these glaciers." I said to myself while I slid my way across the ice. "There used to be warm oceans here. not frozen wastelands." "Ouch! Cursed ice!" I exclaimed, slipping and falling almost everywhere I stepped. I had fallen on my rear many times, and this was no exception. I decided to relax on the ground and let it recover a bit with the spell aura, and, sprawled out on the ice, I looked to the sky in time to see what I believed to be a flying person. "That can't be possible, unless." "James? Could that be you, or do my tired eyes deceive me?" "It is I, and I have awakened before you, I gather from what is before me." The flying mercury guardian said. "Well I have a sore rear and an issue with a guy names Felix who seemingly destroyed my town" I replied. "Is that so? The wise one has sent me to retrieve you, and we shall awaken and/ or bring them with us. They must be present for us to return wayward to its original state." He explained. "Original state? What else has changed besides the Northern Reaches?" I asked, desperate for more information about the world's great shift during my slumber. "James, I noticed that our powers have been drained, and I cannot seem to fly like I used to." "Well that is explained by the presence of Dijinn, and the original state is what the world was like 10,000 years ago." He said, in a matter-of-fact tone. 


	2. increased tension

Increased Tension (this portion was written by my co-author)  
  
"The sooner we get this world back to the way it was the better" Dan said. " It's freezing!" The Mars adept wasn't used to the cold that had taken over his once paradise homeland. "James how can you even stand this weather?" The Mercury adept simply replied " I'm used to it." Being the guardian of Mercury Lighthouse he had always lived in his snowy town of Imil. Dan was still blasting a path with searing beam. "Can't u fly us out of here?" Dan asked he was getting tired of the snow." Dan I used all of my psyenergy flying here." James said, "Besides were almost out of frozen wasteland." "And into the mountains." was Dan's immediate response.  
  
As Dan continued to blast a path through the shoulder - high snow his powers were draining quickly till he couldn't use another searing beam. "Great, now what do we do?" Dan said angry at the thought he would have to suffer in this wasteland longer. James tossed him a Psy Crystal. "You mean you could have flew us out of here all this time!" Dan's voice was a mix of shock and anger. "Either we climb the mountain or fly over it." James calmly replied hoping Dan wouldn't burn the living out of him. All Dan wanted to do was get out of the snow so continued to blast a path to the mountains.  
  
When they finally reached the foot of a mountain it was James's turn to do the work. Dan gave James his Hover Jade knowing the Mercury adept had to charge it to use it's hidden power. James gave the Jade back to Dan and the both yelled out "Fly" and soon enough they both were flying. "Alright Venus Lighthouse here we come." James said "James, were going to our meeting location" Dan stated "Why?" the Mercury adept was confused cause the team need to be reunited if they were going to reclaim the Golden Sun. "I told John that when he woke up to Teleport to Venus Lighthouse, get Sean, and meet me at our location."  
  
Dan said as he looked at James, who blue eyes looked worried despite his blue mask attached to his similar color cloak was covering the lower part of his face while the hood of the cloak covered most of his hair. His blue ninja - like clothing was drying off after all the snow that melted into it. His boots, made for traveling in snow, were also drying off due to the speed they were flying though the air. "I just hope we are the ones who are late." James said breaking the temporary silence. 


	3. Arrival

Arrival  
  
The air was cool; my suit was making me feel cold due to the weakening seams, which were already in bad enough condition already, and on top of that, my anger soared as we neared vale. "What's this, a party?" I inquired of my fellow traveler. He responded "Yes, it is a celebration of the return of alchemy. The people are overjoyed, although their town was completely wiped out, they are glad to be safe." "Well, its time to crash it and I know just the way to do it." I anticipatively said to James. "This gathering of adepts is sure to contain the eight we seek. Maybe I will start with a bang. Planet div-""wait!" James not-so-quietly advised; screwing up my concentration on the spell I was casting. "Not yet, wait until the others arrive or we find them. We may be powerful, but there are hundreds of adepts at this festival. A folly like what you were about to pull would have done us both in." Realizing my mistake, I said "well, I guess I got to keep my anger under control." "You had better, and there should be no trouble if you do." James yelled back at me. Putting my hand on the hilt of my mars blade's hilt, I couldn't hardly help myself from releasing my building rage on my ally, since he was the only person in range who was holding me back from attacking others. "The checkpoint is over beyond that mountain." James informed me. "But before that we need to find some place to stay, that is, if we don't destroy it in the attack. Now for some food..."  
  
The plan was for us to get some food after such a long time asleep, and I for one couldn't agree more. (It has been 10,000 years, and G*D MY STOMACH WAS SORE!) So we split up to find some food. It wasn't hard for me to find something to eat, but I needed to find something relatively cheap and private, being that I was at the time unknown to the people surrounding me. All those smiling faces at this carnival were glad to see that the golden sun would soon rise. I wouldn't allow that, but I had to lay low for a while. As I continued to search, I found a quiet little hut which had a not-too- quiet group inside of it and I could easily smell smoke and see a cloud of steam coming from the inside..  
  
I run inside to find my fellow fighting a young mars adept. This fight was bound to go no-where; due to the fact that every attack the teen made was blocked by the water adept's glacier spell. I quickly asked of James while he was relaxing in between casting and defending: "How did you manage to flood this room up to my knees?" I was simply looking for a bite to eat when I saw that these people had some food. I went and asked for some, and to nobody's amazement I'm sure; they declined." He quickly explained to me as I ducked under the fighting duo's latest barrage against each other. "They most likely were going to sit down to dinner, and not all of them are here." I was confused by this lack of detail, and now I was wondering why a bit of refused food was going to start a fight. "Umm. j-man, why are these people fighting you if all you needed was a bit of food?" I asked quite fast, considering it was another in-between moment when it was safe to raise my head above the tabletop to speak. The data compiled was a bit much for me to grasp, but I was a male mars adept, so I considered this perfectly normal. What I found odd was that James did exactly what he told me not to do. He had compromised our mission by revealing our presence too early. I watched this ongoing struggle of the two opposite adepts, water and fire, and munched on some crackers absentmindedly. The fight would last for a while yet, unless I decide to become the peacekeeper, which I found to be a comic idea. Another thought struck me. What if the fight was triggered by this youth, not the mercury war machine before me? He could allow me to join the fight and end the water-logging I was being forced to endure. but no matter, I didn't care if he allowed it or not. What was he, my mother? I can tell myself what to do. I got up and began casting searing beam on the angry youth, not unlike myself, except for what I believed verses what he did. The shot would have sent him sprawling over the carpeted ground, into the next hallway, and destroyed a few vases along the route too, but he was warned of my attack by a Venus adept with golden brown hair who was watching this fight with such dedication that it seemed he was taking notes inside his skull, like a play-by-play recording of the match. He was so focused on how the fight was progressing that he even looked shocked to see me stand up and begin casting my spell. "Garet, Everybody, DUCK!" he screamed out to his fellow adepts. They all dropped like stones at this, and my spell missed their heads by at least 3 feet each. James, noticing the lack of enemy attacks recently, turned and actually acknowledged my presence in the room. After realizing I was there he spoke to me "why, if it isn't dan, who was supposed to find us some food." And I responded, quite annoyed at the time "James, what in the name of the golden sun ARE you doing?" "I was asking if we could share the meal here with these powerful adepts, similar to us, and that jackal over there (he points to the youth, apparently named Garet, who was attacking him) denied me furiously and began yelling at me. His outburst was quenched by the young girl over there with blue hair, and the one with the gold hair. He soon however started yelling at them, something about curiously odd strangers, saying something about us being like a duo called Saturos and Menardi. I couldn't understand and went to leave when he had caught my ninja suit with a weak flame attack. From here it got to fighting, and then to this." He truthfully explained; I could see it on his face, it's hard for me to falsely detect truthfulness, being that I am a mars adept and not a Jupiter adept. "Garet, have you been trying to burn down the house?" A curious female mars adept asked of Garet. The teen got to his feet, blushing scarlet, and left the room silently. The girl who asked the unanswered question approached us, seemingly wondering if we were of the same race. She looked at us from the left, right, front, and, to our personal discomfort, the back. She seemed questionable as to her mood, but had a kind look about her that was shared among her and the girl with the blue hair. She spoke to us and caught us off guard; she had been silent for most of the time before. "Who are you? I have never seen anyone like you before.are you from different parts of the world than the other?" "Yes we are and there is no use hiding it." "Well that's interesting and all to tell stories about where we are all from, but we need to find a place to get some food WITHOUT a fight! Umm.bye?" I added quickly to end the conversation. The fires of the festival began to gain in size and spring to life where there were none before as dusk approached the rather large tent town of vale. "So it would seem that you are already in trouble, wouldn't it?" I casually asked, knowing full well what it deserved. "You better keep that mouth shut, ill freeze it there if you don't!" he angrily said back. "Well I had found a place, and it would be obvious during this excursion that we have already switched roles. I used to be the violent one, AND I LIKED IT!" I said to James like it was some kind of joke. "Alright, let's go to your discovery then, and we shall see what kind of food that this town has in comparison to what it had 10,000 years ago. The special at this place is a soup made with momonga meat and local vegetables. (Soup is a meal now???) "Hmm. I'm not sure we want to have something like soup, considering that we should be eating solid food, as was the norm back in our time. It was always an appetizer or side dish.how sad that the pitiful amount of food in soup has become a full meal. So Strange." James opinionated of the restaurant's dish of the day. "Well then try and find something that's cheaper, mind you we haven't much money right now." I almost spat at him saying. "We should find something quiet, I believe, with some steak perhaps?" I calmly added. "Alright then. We shall go to that grill in the corner of this town. It is over there, down those cliffs." He described. "WHAT??? ARE YOU TELLING ME THAT WE COULD HAVE GONE DOWNHILL ALL THIS TIME, NOT UP?" I practically yelled at him. "Apparently so." He evenly threw in after my short tirade.  
  
We walked down the stairs built into the cliffs, and as we walked we saw the house which was the source of the conflict earlier. Walking from back- to-front of the residence I noticed a tall rock standing on a bed of flowers. I ignored it as a simple thing that really isn't usual but typical enough that I wouldn't criticize the residents for it. I chuckled silently and moved on. At last we reached the bottom of the cliffs and arrived at the eating place James had described. "Why didn't we go here in the first place?" I asked as we entered. I received no response, mostly due to the timing of my inquiry which was at the time he found a menu. He went perusing through it looking for something cheap and delicious. I was not disturbed by this, for I too had found searching the menu rather fascinating. I finally decided on a medium-well steak, which was mildly priced and was similar to what was around when I was sealed away. "Why are u getting a steak?" James jokingly asked. "I happen to know that this will be what I expect it to be. I personally do not like surprises." The meal passed quickly and as we left the night had fallen dark; the sun's rays were all but gone." "G*D Dang it where the H**L are John and Sean?" James quite angrily inquired of me as we arrived at the meeting place behind mount aleph. "They should have arrived hors ago!" "I believe that they have a longer trip than you did, considering that those lighthouses are farther off than yours, and they met up at Jupiter before coming to vale. It was the original plan, was it not?" I unworriedly replied to him. I then proceeded to scan the field of rocks that lay before me. It was a strange site indeed, to see the heart of power's roots as such feeble materials in great disarray. Either the mountain had crumbled slightly and worn down, or the village had used its outer crust for construction purposes. I supposed the latter was true, considering that 10,000 was quite a short time for a mountain to crumble. "Bloody, the light is gone. Dan, make a fire! We need light!" as I scrambled for firewood, James continued to issue such commands. "Alright, now light it!" "I know how to make a fire, James. I am a Mars Adept. "Sshh. I hear voices." James quietly explained. "That's never a good sign, james. You sure you don't need help?" "Ha-ha. these are real voices. Listen!" and so I did, and it happened to be that they were, in fact, real. There were two voices of two males wandering in the dark. I wondered what business they could have back here at night, but they were not trying to conceal themselves in any way. Their voices were carrying throughout the forest beyond the mountain, and that gave me a direction in which to look for intruders onto our campground. 


End file.
